Deal drawers are known in the prior art. Deal drawers can be used in customer service environments to carry out transactions between a transaction service provider and a customer. Deal drawers have been used in drive-through banking applications, gas station applications, payroll window applications, drug store applications and other transaction environments.
Deal drawers are often used in transaction environments where it is desirable to separate the transaction service provider from the customer. This may be desirable for example in situations where the customer is located in an outdoor environment and the service provider is located indoors. The use of the deal drawer enables a customer and the service provider to exchange items such as cash or paperwork while maintaining the separation of the interior environment where the service provider is located, and the exterior environment of the customer. In other transaction environments deal drawers may be used primarily to segregate the service provider and the customers for security reasons. In some cases the customer and the service provider may view each other through a window or other opening that is configured to reduce the risk that the service provider may be threatened by a weapon. The use of the deal drawer enables the service provider and the customer to exchange items while reducing the risk that a person with access to the customer station may threaten the service provider with a weapon.
While deal drawers are useful in a variety of transaction environments, there is still room for improvements that are not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art. For example it may be desirable to make the overall structure of a deal drawer mechanism more compact. It may also be desirable to provide for relatively greater travel of the drawer mechanism toward the customer so that it is easier for a customer to place items into and remove items from the deal drawer. It may also be desirable to make a deal drawer that is more economical or secure. It may be desirable to provide a deal drawer mechanism that cannot have the drawer moved when a service provider may be accessing the drawer.
It may also be desirable to provide a deal drawer with an automated drive system so that a service provider need not exert manual efforts to open and close a deal drawer. In such an automated deal drawer system it may also be desirable to provide systems that minimize the damage that might occur from the deal drawer bumping into a customer or their vehicle.
Deal drawers can also become broken or damaged. For example if a deal drawer has an automated drive that malfunctions, the service provider may be unable to carry out transactions through the deal drawer until it is fixed. Alternatively customers may inadvertently damage a deal drawer by driving into it or by attempting to improperly place an article within it. In these cases it may be desirable to reduce the period of inoperability and the need for time consuming repairs.
Thus there exists a need for a deal drawer which has one or more improved properties of operation, security, repairability and economy.